Are Bark River and Tops going to crush everyone?

Insipid Moniker said:
Multiple people received models marked in a more expensive steel that, upon use and later testing, proved to be BRKT's standard A2. I remember one was marked 3V, but the other escapes me. Both threads are in this forum if you search for them. Combine that with Mike Stewart's past grifts and I don't trust any BRKT model as far as I could throw a ton of their '3V'.
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Not to mention, "Can anyone tell me why my brand new Magnacut blade is showing signs of surface oxidation?"

"MAGNACUT ISN'T COMPLETELY STAINLESS!!!!!!! YOU NEED TO LEARN ABOUT KNIFE STEELS!!!!"

This is an actual exchange that happened on the DLT Insiders page where someone was just asking what the hell was going on with their brand new BRK knife in Magnacut, and Mike came in to scream and condescend to the guy, and it took DLT's owner (Jason) saying that it was probably actually another kind of steel that had been left over on the belts they cleaned up the Magnacut knives with, and that steel was what was probably rusting on the surface of the blade, to calm things down. Mike is a huge clown, and I can't stand him or his knives as a result.
 
kobold said:
I found two explanations on YT for the patina on some Bark River's Magnacut blades.

One comes from DLT saying they use the same belts on all knives so surface contamination with other, eg A2 steels can happen.

The second one comes from Bark River, saying the steel manufacturer botched up the stress relieve process (with too high temps?) that caused decarburization of the top layer of the steel. Adding, that belt contamination cannot be the cause, because they do batches, so then only Magnacut can contaminate Magnacut.
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Just commented to this effect. The big takeaway here is that Mike attacked someone immediately for just asking about why their Magnacut knife was rusting, this whole possible belt issue* was only brought to light after Mike tried to make it sound like the customer who was the issue, and not the knife or their production methods.


* Which as far as I'm concerned is absolutely a QC problem
 
What Quiet Quiet says right up there. I had an interaction with Mike, have witnessed plenty others, and it goes just like that every time. He *always* has to be right, and will outright make things up and go into bully mode if others don't agree with him. It leaves a sour taste and makes me believe all the bad stories (from good people) about his integrity. Their QC is a joke, I don't think they inspect knives before they ship. The "Spa" is always available if you want, they'll grind a knife down for free which is a service some enjoy. I sent my favorite one in to have the tip repaired (dropped it) with a note to please not touch the handle. So they ground that handle way down for me, slimmed it out and ruined the contours, left a gouge where the sander belt caught it.
I've had a couple dozen BRK's and still have/enjoy using a few. I do like a lot of their handle ergonomics. Shady characters can still do good design sometimes 🤷‍♂️ The steel is *usually* fine (Peters heat treat these days) I had some that just couldn't hold an edge in use for whatever reason. And they do often need a sharpening to get past the edge steel that's had its heat treat ruined by the heat of the dry belt grind. In all fairness, I've only ever bought one new knife that shipped with an edge I found acceptable so I'll be sharpening everything anyhow. So, two dozen BRK knives and 4 real duds. A one in six chance of some BS.
 
HexY3co said:
Tops makes nice stuff. I love the Prather war bowie, don't have one yet.
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I have one and it’s one of my favorite bowie knives in my collection. Definitely my favorite Tops knife. If you get one, make sure to get an Azwelke kydex sheath with leather horizontal straps for scout carry. It’s amazing how well that big knife carries this way
 
I have two bushcrafters in 3V(I hope 🤣)

Great knives IMO and extensively tested by the DBK boys and others.

Sad stuff with the looney Mike, but I still like some of his designs.

uy3Hkkyh.jpg
 
353 said:
I have two bushcrafters in 3V(I hope 🤣)

Great knives IMO and extensively tested by the DBK boys and others.

Sad stuff with the looney Mike, but I still like some of his designs.

uy3Hkkyh.jpg
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There was a MACV-SOG bowie that they were the OEM for that was dead gorgeous, but I wasn't gonna take the chance. I genuinely wish I could feel comfortable buying BRKTs, because many look really nice, but I'm not taking my chances.
 
Insipid Moniker said:
There was a MACV-SOG bowie that they were the OEM for that was dead gorgeous, but I wasn't gonna take the chance. I genuinely wish I could feel comfortable buying BRKTs, because many look really nice, but I'm not taking my chances.
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Oddly the non-BRKT branded ones seem to be better made. the MACV-SOG bowie was a Vehement Knives collaboration and by everything I've seen in the VK group (granted there's a fair bit of overlap between that group and the BRKT fanboy group, so take it for what it's worth) was that they were a success.
 
madcap_magician said:
Oddly the non-BRKT branded ones seem to be better made. the MACV-SOG bowie was a Vehement Knives collaboration and by everything I've seen in the VK group (granted there's a fair bit of overlap between that group and the BRKT fanboy group, so take it for what it's worth) was that they were a success.
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Their "Quartermaster" was pretty lovely, too. I have both a Cattaraugus 225Q and a Case 337-6"Q and can tell you that Mike and Matt knocked it outta' the park, in my humble opinion. As I mentioned in another thread, it's very rare that someone can produce something "the same" and "better", all at the same time. Somehow, they managed to do it. (*For me, the "Q" knives will always be the most aesthetically appealing of the WWII-era blades)

Like my SRKs, the BRK Quartermasters are some of the very few hidden tang fixies that I've beaten like a rented mule. I have a few, and they have proven to be very robust. As you would expect, there's a YT vid to refute my opinion. However, if you do some digging, you might (*like me) come to the conclusion that the "reviewer" went looking for a problem...and subsequently found it.


Anyhoo, I can't see them producing those again, anytime soon. I kinda' got the impression that some of the machining was a bit of a mass production pain-in-the-butt.
 
ephsea said:
What Quiet Quiet says right up there. I had an interaction with Mike, have witnessed plenty others, and it goes just like that every time. He *always* has to be right, and will outright make things up and go into bully mode if others don't agree with him. It leaves a sour taste and makes me believe all the bad stories (from good people) about his integrity. Their QC is a joke, I don't think they inspect knives before they ship. The "Spa" is always available if you want, they'll grind a knife down for free which is a service some enjoy. I sent my favorite one in to have the tip repaired (dropped it) with a note to please not touch the handle. So they ground that handle way down for me, slimmed it out and ruined the contours, left a gouge where the sander belt caught it.
I've had a couple dozen BRK's and still have/enjoy using a few. I do like a lot of their handle ergonomics. Shady characters can still do good design sometimes 🤷‍♂️ The steel is *usually* fine (Peters heat treat these days) I had some that just couldn't hold an edge in use for whatever reason. And they do often need a sharpening to get past the edge steel that's had its heat treat ruined by the heat of the dry belt grind. In all fairness, I've only ever bought one new knife that shipped with an edge I found acceptable so I'll be sharpening everything anyhow. So, two dozen BRK knives and 4 real duds. A one in six chance of some BS.
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Thanks for the honest take. It is always good to get info direct. That is why I was asking on here.

I found an ultra lite bushcrafter with an off grind, called them up(talked to Rob), sent it in, asking to see if when fixing the grind whether they can thin the blade to sub .090 and turn it into a higher grind for slicing like the gunny hunter lt. They sent it back in less than two weeks and it is a beautiful slicer. Holds and edge like nobody’s business and strops up like a razor. (like a combat paring knife - I’m not chopping down trees with it)

That kind of service for me was unheard of.

Also - I really like the Gunny handle shape as well as the thin blades on the mini kephart (and kephart, which I hope to get on the next batch).
 
Quiet said:
Not to mention, "Can anyone tell me why my brand new Magnacut blade is showing signs of surface oxidation?"

"MAGNACUT ISN'T COMPLETELY STAINLESS!!!!!!! YOU NEED TO LEARN ABOUT KNIFE STEELS!!!!"

This is an actual exchange that happened on the DLT Insiders page where someone was just asking what the hell was going on with their brand new BRK knife in Magnacut, and Mike came in to scream and condescend to the guy, and it took DLT's owner (Jason) saying that it was probably actually another kind of steel that had been left over on the belts they cleaned up the Magnacut knives with, and that steel was what was probably rusting on the surface of the blade, to calm things down. Mike is a huge clown, and I can't stand him or his knives as a result.
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That sucks. I try to stay away from new steels until everyone has experienced first hand the problems with it. I got burned with some S30V from two vendors when that was the latest and greatest. (Took forever to sharpen, and then held an edge for just an instant longer than the S35VN that came next which was much better for me for day to day use.)
 
Insipid Moniker said:
There was a MACV-SOG bowie that they were the OEM for that was dead gorgeous, but I wasn't gonna take the chance. I genuinely wish I could feel comfortable buying BRKTs, because many look really nice, but I'm not taking my chances.
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I was gifted an original seki-japan model gifted years ago with 5th group markings (at about 7:35 in this dude’s video
- had to see what the bark river macv-sog looked like…) so I am a bit spoiled with that. Looks like the bark river version looks nice.
 
droddy386 said:
I was gifted an original seki-japan model gifted years ago with 5th group markings (at about 7:35 in this dude’s video
- had to see what the bark river macv-sog looked like…) so I am a bit spoiled with that. Looks like the bark river version looks nice.
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Here's a picture of the VK custom version MACV-SOG. We just sort of accept Knifemaker Time (TM) is an issue, but I was fortunate enough to get on the VK custom books last time they were open (New Year's Day 2020 or 2021, I forget which), with an estimated completion date of September 2022. I'm happy to wait, but the longer you wait, the more you second-guess what you ordered, and I've been thinking about changing my order to a MACV-SOG bowie...
 
madcap_magician said:
View attachment 2322423

Here's a picture of the VK custom version MACV-SOG. We just sort of accept Knifemaker Time (TM) is an issue, but I was fortunate enough to get on the VK custom books last time they were open (New Year's Day 2020 or 2021, I forget which), with an estimated completion date of September 2022. I'm happy to wait, but the longer you wait, the more you second-guess what you ordered, and I've been thinking about changing my order to a MACV-SOG bowie...
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Yeah - the key is to have it in hand… Interesting how so many places have such a wait and then when orders are filled, how many end up on Arizona Custom and other places at twice the original asking price. Wondering how much of the purchasing is going to the online sharks?
 
droddy386 said:
Yeah - the key is to have it in hand… Interesting how so many places have such a wait and then when orders are filled, how many end up on Arizona Custom and other places at twice the original asking price. Wondering how much of the purchasing is going to the online sharks?
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Oh I've been in the VK groups for a long time. A few of those collectors have deep pockets. His book prices are actually pretty reasonable, but you can make them expensive with options pretty quick. The base price on most when the books were open was about $750. It's not so much that they are purchased to get flipped, but the resale value is strong. I had a grail custom wasp-waisted dagger that was not an orderable model, and I sold it for $3,200 instantly in the VK Facebook group. I probably could have gotten $4,000. Matt likes it that way, because he wants people to be able to turn them into cash when needed. I sold a couple of midtech VK Grunt fixed blades last summer and made about $200 in profit on each. Paid for my seventh-grader's emergency crown replacement.

I would not pay secondary price for them, but there are enough people who do that they're definitely sound investments.

Here's the one VK custom I still have right now, a variant of his Commando Dagger styled after the Fairbairn-Sykes First- and Second-Pattern daggers. His Commando Dagger is an orderable model, but has stacked leather handles like the V-42. He only made a few with the knurled aluminum handle and a few more with the Third-Pattern F-S grooved aluminum handle. This was $1,500 from the release, and would probably go for $2,500 in the Facebook group.

 
I am surprised about posts reporting declining Bark River QC. I am not on FB, but there are a couple of Bark River sub forums that I follow for maybe three or four years and I don't remember any complaints on those so far. Granted they are small ones. I can only draw my own conclusion based on my experience and I must say I am very happy with the product in every way.
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These are all mine. They all cut like nobody's business. They hold the edge for a long time and they are all so easy to maintain by just stropping with a simple leather strop. I don't think there is anything wrong with them. It is even more baffling to read about QC issues when the retailers maintain WYSIWYG product images with reasonable zoom depth.
 
I only have 3 Tops knives at the moment. An Alaskan Harpoon, a 107c Steel Eagle, and a TKC/Architect Field Buddy 6.5 made by Tops in 3V. I use the Alaskan Harpoon for pretty much everything, I just started using the Field Buddy 6.5 and it’s an amazing knife, especially at it’s price point.
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kobold said:
I am surprised about posts reporting declining Bark River QC. I am not on FB, but there are a couple of Bark River sub forums that I follow for maybe three or four years and I don't remember any complaints on those so far. Granted they are small ones. I can only draw my own conclusion based on my experience and I must say I am very happy with the product in every way.
IMG-1136.jpg

IMG-2660.jpg

These are all mine. They all cut like nobody's business. They hold the edge for a long time and they are all so easy to maintain by just stropping with a simple leather strop. I don't think there is anything wrong with them. It is even more baffling to read about QC issues when the retailers maintain WYSIWYG product images with reasonable zoom depth.
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What’s the one on the far right? It looks similar to a Carter one that I have. https://www.districtcutlery.com/carter-cutlery-kajiki-neck-knife-2879/
 
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